Term of Award

Spring 2007

Degree Name

Doctor of Education in Education Administration (Ed.D.)

Document Type and Release Option

Dissertation (open access)

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Department of Leadership, Technology, and Human Development

Committee Chair

Walter S. Polka

Committee Member 1

F. Erik Brooks

Committee Member 2

Abe Tekleselassie

Abstract

This study examined the current assessment criteria utilized to evaluate the effectiveness of various alternative education programs within the state of Georgia. The population surveyed included alternative program principals for the year 2005-2006, from a list provided by the Georgia Department of Education. A survey instrument was constructed based on a synthesis of the existing literature on alternative education programs and was e-mailed to 207 principals within the state. The survey consisted of 20 multiple-choice items and three open-ended questions. Only 25 surveys were returned, which represented a 12.08% response rate. In addition, four principals from within a large metro Regional Educational Service Agency (RESA) district were interviewed, allowing the researcher to gain in-depth knowledge regarding the evaluative criteria utilized at various alternative programs. This study utilized the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for the statistical analysis of data. Descriptive statistics were calculated and presented for the analysis of quantitative data. Content analysis was used to formulate emerging themes from qualitative data. 2 Study results indicated from the small population of respondents that most alternative schools were evaluated. The researcher also discovered that overwhelmingly most alternative programs are evaluated by reviewing student academic progress and/or gathering staff and/or student feedback. Follow-up studies are advised to garner higher response rates to determine if the results are similar.

Research Data and Supplementary Material

No

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